Additional Placement Corrections – Dec 19, 2017

We’ve continued to monitor how placement matches and the ranked matchmaking system have been performing since our most recent hotfix and reset. While the system is now performing much more in-line with our expectations, we’ve also found a small number of players who have moved up or down a little too far in the ranking system during their latest placements.

We’ve received feedback that placement matches can feel like they have too much impact on a player’s ranking—especially if their place in the rankings at the end of the previous season was solid. While the vast majority of players haven’t been affected by this, we agree with the feedback we’ve received that moving up or down more than one league as a result of placement matches can be a negative experience.

We believe this is a one-time abnormality due to the issues we’ve experienced since the season began. We plan to address it by manually correcting affected players’ current rankings and matchmaking ratings to put them back where they belong in the ranking system.

This means that players who are more than 1 League (5 Divisions) higher or lower than where they ended 2017 Season 3 at the time that we make these adjustments will be moved up or down to get them back on track. Additionally, we will also adjust players who are currently in placements and diverging too far from their Season 3 end-point. As a side note, those who are adjusted down after rising too high will still be able to claim the end-of-season rewards for reaching that ranking.

Finally, we’re making adjustments to our placement formula so that players who already have a ranking heading into a new season will not move quite as much as a result of their placement matches. Players who haven’t yet started or finished this season’s placement matches will also be affected by this change.

Once again, we sincerely apologize for the rocky experience we’ve had rolling into 2018 Ranked Season 1. We want ranked play to feel fun, fair, and challenging for everyone who queues up, and we’re working hard to ensure our ranking system provides those experiences. We understand that dealing with issues like these as a player is very frustrating, and it is also quite frustrating for us to know that any aspect of our game isn’t living up to our expectations—or yours. We’re sorry that the new season got off to a rough start, and we’d like to thank you very much for your patience as we’ve worked to address this series of placement issues.

We will remain vigilant in monitoring ranked play and keep you updated if any further hotfixes or adjustments are needed as 2018 Season 1 continues.